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If young children approached word learning with little social savvy, certain predictable patterns of error would arise in the way they interpret new words. The absence of such errors provides evidence that social understanding informs word learning even in the infancy period. We outline such evidence, and then scrutinize it with respect to four challenges. 1) Is it necessary to invoke genuine social understanding to explain infants' word‐learning successes? 2) Do infants treat social clues as criterial in their interpretation of new words? 3) Individuals suffering clear deficits in social understanding sometimes display apparently intact vocabulary acquisition: Must we then conclude that word learning can proceed without the aid of social understanding? 4) Is processing of social clues too effortful to be generally useful for everyday word learning? The first challenge is answered by the available evidence: Infants indeed capitalize on social understanding to interpret new words. Although the remaining challenges have yet to be resolved, we offer speculations that might profitably guide future investigation.

Abstract This research examined associations among demographic variables, parenting strategies, and a theory of mind battery including measures of perception, desire, belief, and emotion understanding in 142 preschool‐aged children. In correlational analyses, maternal education and, to a lesser extent, income were associated with a number of aspects of theory of mind. Additionally, mothers' use of instruction in response to child misbehavior was positively associated with perception and desire understanding whereas mothers' use of consequences and power assertion were negatively associated with aspects of theory of mind. In regression analyses controlling for children's cognitive ability and age, maternal education continued to be positively associated with perception understanding. Power assertion was negatively associated with belief understanding, but positively associated with emotion understanding. Finally, mothers' use of consequences in response to child misbehaviors was negatively related to emotion understanding.